Control means for ink fountains



Aug. 19, 195.2 H. R. LEEDY ET AL CNTROL MEANS FOR INK FOUNTAINS Filed March 29, 1951 INVENTORS. HEQBERT 2. L550) FRANK A. M7528 -BJM w Patented Aug. 19, 1952 2,607,315 CONTROL MEANS FOR INK FoUN'rAms Herbert R. Leedy and Frank A. Myers, Cleveland, Ohio, assignors to Aids Development 00., Inc., 1

Cleveland, Ohio, a corporation of Ohio 1 Application March 29, 1951, Serial No. 218,217

This invention relates to printing presses, and more particularly to the ink feed portions thereof.

More particularly, the invention pertains to printing presses which include an ink fountain consisting essentially of a roller and a blade cooperative therewith to provide a slight gap therebetween, extending longitudinally of the roller at the point of the V formed between the roller surface and the blade. Through such gap the ink is fed from the V, by progressionof the fountain roller in the operation of the press, through a suitable series or system of intermediate, intercontacting rollers until the ink is eventually applied to the printing medium, by one or more form rollers which constitute the last of such series.

The type of printing medium here contemplated may be either relief, as in a letter press, or planographic, as in lithography; and in each event may be either direct, wherein the material being printed upon is caused to contact the printing medium, or offset, wherein an intermediate medium receives the ink film from the printing medium and contacts the material being printed upon, for final transfer thereto of the ink. 7

Thus, the invention is concerned with two known printing media and ,two methods of ink transfer thereto, in presses of a type employing any combination thereof.

Modern printing, even with highly developed presses of the types under consideration, presents very complex problems of control of the ink applied to the form rollers. The problemsiare involved by three fundamental variables which must be properly combined to produce a specific printed sheet. These fundamentals arethe unitquantity ofink, which may be heavy orspare;

the total-quantity of ink, which may be large-or small; andthe total-quantity-distribution of ink, which may be uniform or.non-uniform. Fur-- thermore, there are a large number of physical, chemical andmechanical variables in the mate.- rials used, as well as in the various designs and adjustable motionsof the presses themselves.

As a result, achievementof a specific satisfactory combination meetingall of theimp'osed variables is difficult for even the most skilled, press operator, and once attained, it is extremely diflicult even for the same operator-.to'maintain satisfactory conditions throughout a press run. The. problems, with their complexities, have been somewhat, known injthe art, although analy-' sis thereofhasbeen relatively neglected. o The art has heretofore been advanced b Claims. (01. 116 124 customary provision, in a modern press, of means for adjusting the fountain blade previously described, toward and from its fountain roller, to thereby correspondingly adjust the gap through which the ink is fed from the V of the fountain to the fountain roller surface. This has been accomplished by making the'fountain blade flexible, and the provision of a row of key screws spaced along the blade, each threaded into an vunit embodying the invention;

adjacent member of the press frame for fine adjustment therein against the back of the blade by means'of a flattened or other head on the screw, so that manipulation of each screw permits individual adjustment of the gap portion thereadjacent.

The principal general object of this invention is to provide more specificsand precise control of thegap, than has heretofore been available in the art, employing the described pre-existing key screws as part of the means for the purpose.

Another object of the invention is to make such provision in the form of attachment easily applied to. pre-existing presses, more particularly to the key screws only thereof, and adapted to considerable variation in design of the press to receive the attachment. I

- A further object is to provide that the adjustments attained by the invention be of micro- And still more objects include'that all of the above be accomplished by means of exceedingly simple design, low cost of production, easy operation, and by employment'of which wear on ink fountain blade and roller are reduced.

Further objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein Fig. 1 is a view in front elevation of a key screw Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the same, as plane of liner-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a rear view ofthe same; Fig. 4 is a sectional elevation of pertinent parts of .a typical printing. press with the unit of Figs.

1, 2 and 3 mounted thereon, and thereby indicating the relation therebetween; and 1 Fig. 5 is a front elevation of the same pertinent parts of the press; showing a pair of units'ofthe device applied thereto.

With reference now to the drawings, and first .i rotsls in the ink fountain for the lower edge of which ink from the V is fed to.

the roller, depending on the setting of the blade 2. Itwill be appreciated that the fountain, including both roller and blade, extend the width of the press} the roller is advanced clockwise, Fig. 4, usually in increments'during operation of the press, in which operation there is, along at least a portion of the width of the fountain, a slight feeding gap between roller and blade.

3' indicates an adjacent fixed" portion of the press frame in which is threadedly'mounted akey screw 4, one end of which, as at 5, bears againstthe back of the blade 2, adjacent the roller 1, and the other end of which is provided-with a head 6 of flattened form as illustrated, or other equivalent form, for the purpose of adjusting the key screw against the blade 2 to control the feedi s s p a jacent thekey screw.

As will also beappreciatedby one familiarwith the .art, the pressisr provided. with a numbercf such key screws. spacedclosely to each otheralon a horizontal rcw, each for. adjusting its adjacent portion of the fiexibleibladel, in the, same manner as describedfor. the screw illustratedin Fig. 4; so; that by individual adjustment of all. of the key screws the ink feeding. gapcoul-d be. theoretically decreased to zero by bearing. the blade '2 against the. roller, could be. made uniform across the press, or may. be varied at different portions thereacross; a

'With reference novw to-Figs'. 1;, 2 audit of the drawings, a micrometric unit for mcunti'ng on one of the keyscrews is illustrated.

The unit includes a bushing 7 having; a central opening. 8:013 diameter. to. fitjon the shank portion 4 of'a key screw, and having means of securement: as by a set. screw turned. into-the threaded opening9.. I

- The bushing. has adjacent, its; forward end a shoulderedibearingto receive a. tab. member if), and'forwardlytherebeyond a calibrated dial II...

The arrangement; is such, asappears particularly: in Fig. 2, that the bearingbetweenthe tab isfl and,

the bushing l. permits free; relative rotation. be-

tween .these;parts,'whereas the. calibrated meme ber II is fixedly secured to the bushing, herein bushing. at; l2

dicated both as by fianging of the and stakingzat 12a. 1 1

The tabla extends offset from the bushingfl: beyond the dial H, and there carriesa forwardly facing member such as the disk IS, a portion of which extends. closely adjacent the calibrations of the member-:1 l. .-As.here shown, both the mem-T- ber. H and the member 13' are of disk form. ar ranged with their forward faces in the sameplaneas indicatedinFig Z, and in near tangential rela-- tion as indicated in Fig. :1; and the'disk is mounteclbyrivetsl l'. r

The: front face of the disk 13': bears an index 55 co-operative with the calibrations of themem- 'ber H, and also hearsiinsigne means for distinguishing from otherwise similar tab members as indicated Fig. 1, the numeral 21 The tab m-emberlt.iszprovided on its rear face with a spring clip. Iii adaptedto yieldably receive and retain-an; anchor member disposed trans versely of the unit andextending the width of the interconnection of all of the tabmembers." I

' p cafiQn Of thedeviceato: a. presswill-be as follows: 1 TI as necessary,

All of the key screws are removed and one of the Units applied to each by mounting one of its bushings 1 on the shank 4 of the screw, whereupon all of the screws are replaced.

Then all of the tabs of the units are interconnected by anchor means such as the wire rod I! inserted in their clip [6. In many presses it is preferable that the tabs be upstanding as illustrated in these drawings, so that the disk 1% are above their calibrated dial ll. However, should the circumstances make it preferable, the tabs may be dependent instead of upstanding in which event the disks l3 are reversed up and down and upper indices I5a, opposite the indices I5, thus located. adjacent but below the calibrated members H. In either event, the insignia nuinerals on the disks l3, thus appear upright to the operator and, of course, their insignia are such as to easily indicate for each that key screw in the row which it serves, as in'dicated in Fig. 5.

After the units have been thu mounted and interconnected by the anchor strip or Wire l7, all of the key screws are turned inwardlyagainst the blade 2'to similarly bear the blade against the fountain roller; Then, for each unit,'it s calibrated member H with its, bushing I is rotated.

to bring the zero of. its. calibrations opposite the index on its disk l3; and then its bushing 7 is fixedly and permanently securedfto the shank .4!

.11 which it is mounted, as. by set screw la Thereaftenthe key screws may be backed away from the blade 2 as desired bythe operator, de-

pendent upon conditions ofthepress run, in the usual manner except that now they operatnr has the; benefit of the. calibrations and their micro other insignia of the disks. l3 permit the operator to easily record the micrometric setting for each key, screw; so that should be required, by reference to such record, the. 0p

erator may reproduce the ink fountain setup, by

mere reproductionv of the individual key screw settings.

After sufficient prolonged operation to result in appreciable. wear on either the roller, the blade. or both ofthe ink fountain, the micrometric. means of this invention may be reset at any time, for accurate zero readings by loosening the set screw la of the bushing l, properly adjusting the calibrated members tjotheir indices theirkey screws by retightening of their set screw.

It'is. to benotedi that the device as illustrated anduhereinabovedescribed constitutes princikey screw and a separate collaror other device secured on the key screw to maintain the tab member adjacent its calibrated member. Such arrangement, however.- would unnecessarily addto the-mounting operations.

The anchor meansneed'beonly a flexible wire of small gauge whichmay be shipped in coil form.

The specific form of-the device illustrated is a; preferred one in that it is adapted'for immediate attachment to most pre existing printin a' rerunv subsequently and resecuring the bushings on its key screw, and

presses. However, certain modifications of the illustrated form may be preferable in some applications.

For example, for some presses it might be preferable to reverse the index and calibrated member relation. Thus the calibrations might be provided on the tab l and merely a pointer index secured on the bushing I, in which case,of course, the index would have its adjusting movement relative to the calibrated member, which latter would be secured against movement by the anchor means.

Also, depending on the location of the row of key screws of a particular press, it might be preferable that the calibrated member, the index or both, be cylindrical or conical in form rather than the flat form herein illustrated.

Also, since a few pre-existing presses already bear numbers designating the key screws, it is not necessary that such numbers be duplicated in the attachment of this invention. Thus, the key screw identifying insignia, such as the numerals 2|, 22 herein illustrated, might be omitted. Moreover, if preferred, colors could be substituted for numbers as the insignia for identifying the key screws of the row. Thus, for example, the numbers 5, Ill etc. might be applied only to the 5th, th etc. key screws of the row, or only such 5th, 10th etc. key screws of the row might be indicated by colors, and intermediate key screws remain individually without identifying insignia. It will be appreciated that the number of key screws in a given press may be as low as 20, or be more than 80.

We claim:

1. A device for mounting on a fountaimbladeadjusting key screw of a printing press, said device comprising a calibrated member having means for securement to said screw for rotation therewith, a tab member mounted on said calibrated member for relative rotation therebetween coaxial with said screw, said tab member having a face bearing an index for said calibrated member and insigne means for distinguishing from otherwise similar tab members, and said tab member having a portion rearward of said face adapted for connection to a transversely disposed anchor member for coincidental support of said anchor member and securement of said tab member against rotation with said calibrated member.

2. Precision control means for a printing press having an ink fountain blade and a row of key screws for adjustment thereof, said means including, for each of said screws, a calibrated member having means for securement to its screw for rotation therewith, and a tab member mounted on said calibrated member for relative rotation therebetween coaxial with said screw, said tab member having an index for said calibrated member and insigne means for distinguishing said screw from others of said row, and said control means also including anchor means adapted for disposition along said row in supported interconnecting relation with said tab members and thereby maintain each by the others against rotation during adjustment of its calibrated member.

3. Precision control means for a printing press having an ink fountain blade and a row of key screws for adjustment thereof, said means including, for each of said screws, a calibrated member having means for securement to its screw for rotation therewith, and a tab member mounted on said calibrated member for relative rotation therebetween coaxial with said screw, said tab member having a face bearing an index for said calibrated member and insigne means for distinguishing said screw from others of said row, and resilient clip means rearward of said face adapted to there provide support to an anchor member disposed transversely of said row, said control means also including such anchor member interconnecting the clip means of said tab members to thereby maintain each tab member by the others against rotation during adjustment of its calibrated member.

4. In a printing press having an ink fountain blade in a row of key screws for adjustment thereof: precision control means comprising, for each of said screws, a calibrated member secured to its screw for rotation therewith, and a tab member outstanding beyond said calibrated member, said tab member having an index cooperative with said calibrated member, insigne means for distinguishing said screw from others of said row, and clip means adapted to receive and support a transversely extending wire anchor member inserted therein, said control means also including such wire anchor member interconnecting the clip means of said tab members to maintain them, each by others, in similarly outstanding disposition.

5. Precision control means for a printing press having an ink fountain blade and a row of key screws for adjustment thereof, said means including, for each of said screws, a calibrated member having means for securement to its screw for rotation therewith, and a tab member mounted on said calibrated member for relative rotation therebetween coaxial with said screw, said tab member having a portion offset from said calibrated member and bearing an index for said calibrated member and insigne means for distinguishing said screw from others of saidrow, said control means also including anchor means for interconnecting said tab members with their offset portions in parallel relation to each other.

HERBERT R. LEEDY. FRANK A. MYERS.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the' file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS 

